Meet Bunny

Since Bunny will be the one approving our current and future products, let me tell you a little bit about him: He is a 2-year-old neutered male Holland Lop my fiance and I adopted at the beginning of the year. He’s run the household ever since.

Bunny clearly hated his cage.

Bunny is the most innocent, friendly, and sweet creature I have ever met and he has no sense of self-preservation. Everyone and everything gets greeted happily and without fear. He’s also a bit on the stubborn side and even though he understands basic commands such as “come here”, he only follows them when they suit him or after a reasonable time has passed to make it look like it was his idea after all. Bunny does not like to be picked up, but he enjoys cuddling on the floor or the couch. Whenever I try to take a picture of him, he’s too interested in the camera to continue doing the cute thing he was doing before and hops over to me instead. So most of the pictures we have of him involve him relaxing/sleeping (which even an interesting camera won’t stop him from doing).

As far as food goes, Bunny loves cilantro, parsley, parsnips, and carrots, but hates dill, mustard greens, and strawberries. He will only eat cucumbers when there is absolutely nothing else left, which is great when we leave him at home alone for longer than usual, because then we know he will have food left later in the day. Bunny gets unlimited amounts of timothy hay, but no pellets at all, and he also eats 2-3 cups of vegetables a day. The list is very long, as we like to offer him a large variety, but he often gets green peppers, fennel, basil, mint, kale, spinach, and apple, for example. The only treats he gets are blueberries and raisins.

Bunny’s tent and food area.

When we first adopted him we realized that he isn’t quite like other rabbits. He doesn’t chew, dig, or throw items around for fun. He has an aversion to breaking things, too. In fact, whenever he was out of his cage he just napped and hopped around and napped and played and napped and cuddled and napped some more.  There was really never a reason why we needed to lock him up in his cage. So we started slowly and let him roam around while we were sleeping. Then we left him out when we weren’t home for longer and longer periods of time. Finally, we got rid of his cage completely. An ugly food container is all it was in the end. Now Bunny has a tent, a food area, a cardboard box castle (update: the castle was replaced by a wooden one in August), and a few favorite spots around the house that seem to rotate weekly. Right now he prefers to cuddle up against

One happy, relaxed Bunny.

the DVD shelf. At night he usually sneaks into our bedroom about 5 minutes after the light went out and falls asleep under our bed. The way he sleeps is quite scary sometimes, because he throws himself on the side, which makes him look like he passed away.

The only behavioral issues we ever had with Bunny was that he wasn’t neutered or litter box trained when he first came to us. After a bunch of research and some unsuccessful attempts, we bought 5 simple cat litter boxes, filled them with Carefresh and a bit of hay, and placed them around the dining/living room. He was restricted to those areas during his training. Every time he went on the floor, we sharply said “no” and put him into a nearby litter box. Whenever he used one by himself, he got a lot of praise. It took him a couple of days to understand what we wanted from him. Eventually, he also picked his favorite and he’s now down to one litter box only.

Bunny when we first adopted him. He loved that box.

There are a few things Bunny loves to do for entertainment. He has a bunch of toys, but his favorite one is his treat ball, which is for sale in our shop. He also loves towels and usually has a big one lying on the floor somewhere. He’ll cuddle with it, build nests, and groom it. Yes, he’s also very much into grooming. He and my fiance will sit on the floor together for long periods of time, grooming each other. Bunny gets brushed while grooming my fiance’s hands with his tongue. I love it when my boys bond like that. Another fun game involves paper towel rolls. We make them stand up, Bunny casually hops by and makes them fall down. Good times. Every now and then, when the heat isn’t unbearable, Bunny also enjoys his all-you-can-eat buffet outside, which consists of mint, parsley, and basil growing in our backyard. Dandelions and rabbit-friendly grass will follow soon.

Bunny’s all-you-can-eat buffet outside.

Every morning I wake up at 6:30am, walk into the kitchen, and get one small snack for Bunny, for example a baby carrot. As soon as he hears my alarm, Bunny races to me and then as close to the kitchen as he can get (he never actually enters the kitchen, because he hates tiles and linoleum floors) and spins around excitedly, waiting for whatever I will give him that day. Usually he grabs it from me and triumphantly hops across the room to eat the snack in his current favorite spot. It’s fun to watch every time. It’s a little less fun on the weekends, when he realizes that his snack time has come and gone and I’m still sleeping. He’ll rub his paws on the bed skirt then, which makes a loud noise, until I give in to his demands.

Most of all, Bunny is a beloved member of our small family. Or as my fiance put it: “What are you saying? You mean we may only have about 6 years with him left?” As we grow and expand the shop that we created because we couldn’t find any great products for rabbits anywhere local, Bunny will be the one approving each item.

What is your pet like?